


remake you in her image

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: The Other Tudor Fics [4]
Category: 16th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF, The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Angst, Aunt-Niece Relationship, Canon Compliant, F/M, Ficlet, Gen, Historically Accurate, Introspection, Oneshot, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Relationship, Uncle-Niece Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22385377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Mid 1540s.“The whole court searches for the King in his daughters’ faces, especially the younger one. The King searches for his former Queens in each of them, and rues all the vestiges he can find.Brandon, though… he searches for Mary’s face in them.HisMary.”A birthday gift for FeatheredShadow, the first friend I ever made through the Tudors fandom.
Relationships: Charles Brandon & Elizabeth I of England, Charles Brandon & Henry VIII of England, Charles Brandon & Mary I of England, Charles Brandon/Mary Tudor of France
Series: The Other Tudor Fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1153991
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	remake you in her image

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moon_waves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon_waves/gifts).



* * *

The whole court searches for the King in his daughters’ faces, especially the younger one. The King searches for his former Queens in each of them, and rues all the vestiges he can find.

Brandon, though… he searches for Mary’s face in them. _His_ Mary.

His Mary had been brash and impetuous and in so many ways a reflection of her royal brother, but gentled by the temperaments of her sex and the freedom of being the lastborn. She craved _more_ _,_ just as her namesake niece does, but his Mary knew more of subtlety and how to keep royal favor... or is it simply that they were lucky to have known the King since he was nothing more than the Duke of York, while Katherine’s lass has only ever known him as her king? She has since learned diplomacy, with interminable difficulty, but it will never be innate to her. She is brittle and brusque, her feelings splashed across the canvas of her face with typical Tudor flair.

So unlike her little sister, who has never known a girlhood, as either of the Marys were able to. Elizabeth dissembles with unsettling skill, and very few see past the mask she puts on. If Brandon looks closely enough, he can catch a glimpse of melancholy that used to be there in his Mary’s countenance, when no one was watching. 

But her woes came from being constrained, and while Brandon was able to free her from her cage, there is nothing he can do to ease the weight on Elizabeth’s shoulders, no way of blunting all of Mary’s sharp edges. No way he can remake his nieces in his Mary’s image, anymore than he can remake King Henry, eighth of that name, into simply _Harry._

**Author's Note:**

> The little girl in the church pew is meant to be young Elizabeth, and Isolda Dyachuk is my fancast for Mary Tudor of France.


End file.
